Distributed Information & Automation Laboratory

About Cambridge Auto ID Lab

Cambridge Auto-ID Centre was opened at the University of Cambridge, UK in 2000 with Dr. Duncan McFarlane as Research Director. Cambridge Auto-ID Centre was re-christened as Cambridge Auto-ID Lab when the centre was closed officially in October 2003 and split into Auto-ID Labs and EPC global., a joint venture between UCC and EAN, will provide on-going funding for EPC research.

History

Founded in 1999, the Auto-ID Center is a unique partnership between almost 100 global companies and six of the world's leading research universities; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology the US, the University of Cambridge in the UK, the University of Adelaide in Australia, Keio University in Japan, the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland and Fudan University in China. Together they are creating the standards and assembling the building blocks needed to create an "Internet of things."

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a simple concept with enormous implications. Put a tag - a microchip with an antenna - on a can of Coke or a car axle, and suddenly a computer can "see" it. Put tags on every can of Coke and every car axle, and suddenly the world changes. No more inventory counts. No more lost or misdirected shipments. No more guessing how much material is in the supply chain - or how much product is on the store shelves.

The Auto-ID Center is designing, building, testing and deploying a global infrastructure - a layer on top of the Internet - that will make it possible for computers to identify any object anywhere in the world instantly. This network will not just provide the means to feed reliable, accurate, real-time information into existing business applications; it will usher in a whole new era of innovation and opportunity.

Learn more...

To find out more about the Auto-ID Centre and its work, including the Centre's research publications, please go to http://www.autoidlabs.org.uk or look at the Centre Guide (PDF).